Dukes Bounce Back With Win Over Towson

After losing to Elon at home last Thursday night, Matt Brady and the Dukes righted the ship with a win over the Towson Tigers. In the loss against Elon, the Dukes were pretty listless. They shot poorly and let Elon sneak out of Harrisonburg with a relatively easy win. Against Towson, JMU played a tough and physical game and managed to walk away with a 73-59 victory. JMU is now 12-5 overall and 2-2 in the CAA. Towson fell to 11-6 and 2-2. Shakir Brown led the Dukes with 14 points. It was his 10th double-digit scoring effort this season, and his first in a CAA game. Ron Curry and the Serb also hit double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively. Cabarkapa was actually a perfect 4 for 4 from the field. Here are a few quick thoughts on the game.

Small Steps for YoYo

If you’ve read the blog in the past, you’ll know we’re huge Yohanny Dalembert fans. He came to JMU as an athletic, but rather raw prospect. He showed some real flashes as a freshmen, grew by leaps and bounds last year, and was seemingly poised to breakout this year. Only he hasn’t. He’s looked uncomfortable on the court and quite frankly had been struggling big time since CAA play began. Yesterday, he started to take a few small steps forward. Yes, he fouled out, but he managed to make his presence known and chipped in 5 points, 8 boards, 1 steal, and 1 block in only 18 minutes. Hopefully it kick starts his confidence, because JMU will need him playing his best against the top CAA teams.

Live By the Three, Die By the Three

JMU shoots a lot of three pointers. A lot. Thus far, they’ve launched 405 three point attempts. That’s the 19th most in the country. (ed. note: Interestingly enough, fellow CAA team Elon shoots even more. They’ve hoisted up 484, the 4th most in the NCAA.) Relying on long range jumpers is essentially a high risk, high reward venture. On nights like last Thursday, when the bombs aren’t dropping, it’s bad. JMU hit only 5 of 28 treys against Elon and lost. However, when the Dukes are knocking ’em down at a 41% clip like they did yesterday, things have a way of working out pretty well.

Good Old Fashioned CAA Rockfight 

Back in the day, the CAA was a pretty physical league. Teams didn’t always win due to beautiful ball movement and great shooting. They won by playing physical basketball in foul filled wars of attrition. The refs did their part by calling fouls. Lots and lots of fouls. As fans, folks affectionately referred to these battles as CAA Rockfights. Yesterday was a bit of a throwback. A total of three players fouled out (YoYo and two Tigers). The refs called 43 fouls and the teams combined for 59 free throws. Towson shot an abysmal 10% from behind the arc and 34.6% overall. While rockfights aren’t always the most fun to watch, being able to win them is essential if the Dukes want to contend for the league title.